Indian Rupee: Advances further amid sustained dollar sales

The Indian rupee advanced further against the dollar in early trades on Wednesday, 03 May 2017 amid sustained selling of the American currency by exporters.

A higher opening in domestic equities besides weakness in the dollar overseas on weak US April auto sales supported the rupee.

The domestic currency opened at Rs 64.13 against the dollar and dipped to a low of 64.1550 before inching back to a high of 64.1050 so far during the day.

In the spot currency market, the Indian unit was last seen trading at 64.1175. Yesterday, the rupee had gained 3 paise against the US dollar to end at 64.21 ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rate.

Domestic benchmark indices edged higher in early trade. At 9:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 59.05 points or 0.2 percent at 29,980.23. The Nifty 50 index was up 16.95 points or 0.18 percent at 9,330.75.

Meanwhile, the dollar traded below a six-week high against the yen on Wednesday, as the market awaited the Federal Reserve's policy statement for hints on the U.S. interest rate outlook, while the kiwi strengthened after strong New Zealand jobs data.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, but investors will look to see whether the central bank downplays the recent soft patch in the economy to leave the door open for a rate increase in June.

The dollar last traded at 112.02 yen, still not very far from a six-week high of 112.33 yen set on Tuesday. The greenback had pulled away from its six-week high after weak US April auto sales data released on Tuesday added to recent worries about the outlook for the U.S. economy, which hit a soft patch in the first quarter.